The Adventure of the Oxidized Grotto
The Adventure of the Oxidized Grotto is the 5th short story in the collection Biggles - Charter Pilot , published in July 1943. The story first appeared in Boy's Own Paper in Feb 1942 under the title The Grotto of Death. In Charter Pilot, this story is preceded by ''The Adventure of the Crooning Crocodile and followed by The Adventure of the Purple Cloud. The story was adapted in French for a comic strip album Le nuage pourpre in the Biggles (Aredit series) published in Jan 1968. There the story had the title La grotte oxydée. Synopsis Talk about the properties of metals among the members of 666 Sqn leads Algy to remark that he had seen what might be the rarest metal in the world. Ginger is persuaded to recount the adventure of Biggles and friends, this time in Borneo. Plot (click on expand to read) Dr Duck reads an old magazine article by one "Tuan" Sommers, a British planter in Sarawak which reports that he had found a cave where everything inside, plant and animal, was white in colour. In response to Dr Duck's enquiry, "Tuan" Sommers Junior, the son of the late planter, confirms that the cave exists and welcomes them to his estate. Expecting an easy expedition, Biggles and co. journey out and land on the river near Sommers' estate. Sommers is unable to join them but lends them a guide in the person of Ulu, his Punan headman. Ulu leads them towards the cave which is located in the mountains twelve miles away and some ten thousand feet up. Ulu stops short of the cave and refuses to go further as he, like the rest of the local tribesmen, believes the place to be haunted. Biggles and co. proceed on their own and soon discover the cave. As reported, all the plant and animal life inside seemed to be coated with a white powdery deposit. Dr Duck knocks a piece of the rock off the wall and asks Ginger to take it outside for further study. Then they notice that the part of the rock which he had freshly exposed was bright red. Dr Duck concludes that this must be orichalcum, a fabled metal described in ancient texts by people such as Plato. Then things start to go wrong. The cave starts to smoke, probably because the freshly exposed face is reacting with air. The piece which Ginger brings outside soon becauses to glow red hot and sets fire to the surrounding moss and dry vegetation. Soon the entire area is burning and they are forced to run down the mountain. The substance also begins to oxidise their skins, turning it chalky white and blistering it so that Biggles and co. are forced to spend a month at Sommers' estate recovering from the effects. A report is made to the Royal Society, but a subsequent expedition fails to find the cave--the part of the mountain where the cave was located had melted into a glassy-looking mass of rock. Characters Narrated story *Biggles *Algy *Ginger *Dr Augustus Duck *Tuan Sommers *Tuan Sommers Junior *Ulu 666 Sqn Personnel during Preamble **Angus Mackail **Tug Carrington **Henry Harcourt **Tex O'Hara Aircraft *Wanderer Places Visited *Sarawak, Borneo **Mojok Research Notes References to the past Incongruities Chronology References Category:Short stories Category:Biggles short stories Category:Interwar era short stories